Protest, Freedom, and Transformation in Space: Firefly as Road Narrative
*This is a shortened and less academic version of the paper that I will present at the fifth biennial Slayage Conference on the Whedonverses in Vancouver on Sunday, July 15, 2012.
Firefly is a Road Story
Everyone talks about Firefly as a Space Western. What people have not discussed much when it comes to form, is how it fits into the Road genre. Road narratives are related to Westerns and Science Fiction as notions of journeys, mobility, and exploration are examined. Firefly shares some elements of great road movies and novels. The Road as a genre often investigates extended travel as a route to protest to the dominant culture, to express pure freedom and escapism, and to discover personal transformation.
Vision of Protest
The road is a place for rebellion. Mobility as a form of protest and defiance is important in Firefly and most significantly to the ship’s captain, Mal Reynolds. This protest includes defying the established power structure and by separating himself by avoiding the parts of the universe that are under more restrictive government control. Mal is oriented towards this due to his life experiences, especially his war trauma.
The journey and the “sky” is one thing that Mal can have power over. The theme song to the series has the line, “you can’t take the sky from me”, and the sky represents freedom and is the one thing that Alliance cannot interfere. Mal keeps flying to avoid the control and oppression of Alliance rule. In the episode, Out of Gas there is a flashback to when Mal first purchases Serenity. He says, "no matter how long the arm of the Alliance might get, we'll just get ourselves a little further".
He defies the Alliance with relish; he accomplishes this by stealing their goods, harboring fugitives, disseminating classified information, and doing his best to make the Alliance government look incompetent. Mal's opposition of the Alliance is shown through his inclination towards crime, but he is ethical about it in a Robin Hood sort of way. This can be viewed as heroic under a corrupt legal and governmental system. He does not want to hurt people in need that also oppose the Alliance and even gives back stolen goods, as seen in the episode, The Train Job.
The vision of protest is viewed through the avoidance of the dominant culture of the Alliance and the outright defiance of their laws and culture. Mal’s brand of rebellion is all about movement and literally flying under the radar of those who oppress. Making the ship and the sky is home in this permanent state of constant movement, flies in the face of the ideal of colonization of space and the Alliance’s ethic of making it a better universe to colonize. This type of protest is really a search for freedom in the universe. Mal is protesting the Alliance in an attempt to be free.
Vision of Freedom
The Road genre shows the ability for travel and mobility is an expression of freedom and destiny. Travelers do not have to play strictly by society’s rules when moving across a sparsely populated highway. The presence of anonymity also gives road heroes the ability to be free from their old lives and existences.
In Firefly, the concept of freedom can be viewed in Mal's statements regarding the ship and his journey. It is also seem in the discussions and plotlines about the rejection of civilization and creating a free society on the spaceship, Serenity.
The sky, also referred to as the Black, in Firefly represents freedom. This value is important to many of the characters in Firefly, but resonates with Mal specifically. One of the lyrics in the theme song is, “I’m still free”, illustrating how this concept is important to the fabric of the series. When asked, in the episode, Out of Gas, what Serenity means to him, Mal simply replies, "freedom”. He also states that he seeks like-minded individuals on the ship’s crew that, "feel the need to be free".
This nomadic lifestyle is counter to civilization or utopia/dystopia created by the Alliance that is focused on the control of people and environments. The need for freedom and rejection of the Alliance pushes Serenity and Mal deeper into space.
Mal and the crew reject notions of a civilized culture as a protest to the dominant culture, as he would rather live on the border. The concept of civilization, especially in regards to its use of civilizing a person is counter to notions of freedom. The crew of Serenity is often discussing what it means to be civilized man/woman and what it means to be free. Many of the passengers reject it outright, others hold on to bits of their notions being civilized, but define it for themselves. The character of Simon, does not choose the road, it is his only way to protect his sister, River. Simon does wants to be a civilized man and often, points out the need for society’s rules. In the episode Jaynestown, for instance, Simon says that being proper "means more out here" as it keeps him civilized. Simon is disgusted by Jayne's crude demeanor and behavior; in the same episode, he calls Jayne a "trained ape, without the training”.
In the movie, Serenity, it is discovered that the Alliance created the Reavers, who are the antithesis of civilized, through an experiment on the planet Miranda. The planet's air system had an added chemical agent, G-23 Paxilon Hydrochlorate, to reduce aggression in the population. Most of the population became so peaceful they just stopped, moving, eating, and working. A small minority became Reavers as they had the opposite effect and reverted to extreme violence. This story in the Firefly saga has a message about either what the lack of freedom does to people, making them lazy, sedentary slaves, or deadly savage killers with no morals or rules. Fighting against this type of situation makes Mal and the crew heroic. The crew of Serenity takes a moderate view of freedom as a value, but not as an absolute.
Mal and the crew of Serenity want to be free and reject hegemonic notions of civilization, although they create their own family and alternative view of society. It is a civilization, but it is one where they are free to make the rules. Throughout this journey and the search for freedom, Mal and the crew change, because the road also has been known to have transformative qualities.
Vision of Transformation
The power of the road, in part, is due to its ability to be a catalyst for personal change, growth, and redefinition. Firefly creator Joss Whedon spoke about the show and the powerful personal aspects of travel on the DVD commentary for the first episode of the series, Serenity, “You take people, you put them on a journey, you give them peril, you find out who they really are”.
Many of the fourteen episodes in the series give the heroes opportunities to reveal themselves by testing them mentally, ethically, emotionally, or physically. Large character arcs and emotional growth are in every one of Joss Whedon's television programs, although Firefly was short lived, it also showed character transformation.
The interpersonal aspects of the series are what give it more depth. Firefly on the surface, may be just about the action of Science Fiction and Westerns, but it is more in tune with the Road genre as it is more about interpersonal interactions and things that happen along the way as agents of change.
An example of his transformation is seen in the episode, Out of Gas. Mal is dying alone on the ship, it was damaged and only eight people could fit on the shuttles. Mal sacrifices himself for the rest of the crew. As he is suffering as the ship is losing air, he has flashbacks on how he got the ship and how he met members of the crew. In this, it reveals who he is as a person and as a hero.
In the beginning of the series, he reluctantly takes up the case of Simon and River as a way to protest against the Alliance and as a business opportunity. At first, he does not want them on the ship at all. Mal tells Simon, that "you've heaped a world of trouble on me and mine" and he says that he will drop them off the on the next stop, he does not. Somewhere on the journey, he begins to genuinely care about them and they are part of his quasi-family on Serenity. He confronts Jayne for selling out River and Simon in the episode Ariel, "you turn on any of my crew, you turn on me”. They have become part of his crew/family. Part of Mal's growth is through the Simon and River storyline.
Conclusion
Firefly is a television series that resonates with many people. The collective visions of protest, freedom, and transformation are topics that connect deeply with the human experience and Firefly taps into these topics in interesting ways. Science Fiction, Westerns, and the Road genre have over lapping themes that also touch a need, highlighting the desire for mobility, exploring new places, and discovering ourselves in new environments.
An approach to the Road should not be defined by automobile travel or literal pavement; it can take place, by foot, on a horse, on a train, or in a spaceship. It does not matter how you get there, but what you express and learn about yourself along the way.
